Despite using extra resources to create additional space for asylum seekers in Belgium, Brussels once again has no space for the refugees lined up outside reception centres.
Earlier in the month, the European asylum support office EASO launched an operation to assist Belgium with the growing crisis of asylum seekers after Belgium had already made emergency additional space at hotels.
But Bruzz reports that, once again, no spaces are left. “At the beginning of the week, we always see more people. Yesterday and today it was not possible to accommodate all single men,” said State Secretary for Asylum and Migration Sammy Mahdi in the House of Representatives on Tuesday.
Mahdi said that no unaccompanied children were now on the streets, and all those unable to secure space in a shelter are single men.
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Experts have been warning for months of a crisis that would see Belgium unable to accommodate asylum seekers, primarily for reasons of mismanagement and incompetence. In recent weeks, people were regularly sleeping on the streets of Brussels in order to save their spot in an ever-growing line of refugees.
Mahdi expects the situation to improve over the coming days: “We should again be able to welcome everyone but of course that always depends on the inflow.”
He emphasised that unaccompanied minors were not allowed to sleep on the streets under any circumstances, even though shelters for the homeless are also experiencing “serious overcrowding”.
“No child stays on the streets, but we will have to make a lot of efforts to prevent this,” Mahdi said.
